Although there wasn’t much news specific to the company, the selloff comes on the back of a broader sell-off in the EV space over the past week and a pivot away from futuristic stocks with the U.S. QuantumScape (NYSE: QS), a startup that is working on solid-state lithium metal batteries for electric vehicles, has seen its stock price decline by close to 9% over the last week (five trading days) and remains down by about 19% over the last month (21 trading days).
In comparison, QuantumScape plans to commence pilot production from 2024 onward. Toyota expects to unveil a functional prototype with a solid-state battery as early as this year and apparently holds the most patents relating to solid-state batteries. There’s a lot of research around solid-state batteries by startups, establish companies, and academia, and it’s probably realistic to assume that QuantumScape won’t be the only player with the tech. Another concern is likely to be the competition. Even if the technology development is on track, commercialization, that is, taking it from the lab into mass production for hundreds of thousands or potentially millions of units, could also be tricky. While investors can take some comfort from the fact that the company has big-name backers, including Volkswagen Group and Bill Gates, their risk to reward expectations might be different from smaller investors. Although secrecy is standard practice in the battery development process, this is risky for investors in a publicly listed company with a market cap of almost $10 billion.
QuantumScape has apparently achieved some pivotal breakthroughs in solid-state battery technology, but there’s no way for investors to really test the company’s claims around its technology, apart from its press releases and presentations.
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